The Guangzhou-Shenzhen section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link would open Aug. 8, the contractor said over the weekend.

The 116-km Guangzhou-Shenzhen section connects Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen in Guangdong. The expected travel time between Guangzhou South Railway Station and Shenzhen’s Futian Station is 36 minutes. Trains on this line will run at a maximum speed of 350 km/h.

Apart from Guangzhou South and Futian, the section will have another four stations from north to south, Dongchong, Humen, Guangming and Longhua.

The 142-km cross-border express railway will open in phases between 2011 and 2016. It will connect Kowloon in Hong Kong in the south and Panyu in Guangzhou in the north. The whole trip is expected to take 48 minutes.

The 26-km Hong Kong section, most of which is underground, is scheduled to open in 2016. It will have a maximum speed of 200 km/h.

The expected travel time from the West Kowloon Terminal to Guangzhou South Railway Station in Shibi, Guangzhou, will be 48 minutes. The railway will connect with the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway at Guangzhou South Station and the Xiamen-Shenzhen Railway at Shenzhen North Railway Station.

With the growing demand for cross border transport to and from the mainland, the Hong Kong government proposed to build the express railway in 2000.